1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fuse which is suitably used in, for example, a power supply box of a vehicle or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
Traditionally, a cartridge fusible link 501 as shown in FIG. 9 is known. The cartridge fusible link 501 is so provided that a generally U-shaped fuse element 503 which is formed by forging a metal plate is accommodated in a box-shaped case body 505 and a transparent cover 507 is overlaid on the case body 505. The fuse element 503 is provided with a generally belt-shaped fusible conductor part 509 which has a melting part 511 on which a low melting point metal chip is mounted and a pair of terminal parts 513 which are provided at two ends of the fusible conductor part 509. The fusible conductor part 509 and the pair of terminal parts 513 are integrally formed by a metal plate. A fuse circuit is formed in a power supply box 515 when the cartridge fusible link 501 is mounted onto the power supply box 515 as shown in FIG. 10 (refer to JP-A-2010-108787).
The power supply box 515 includes a blade fuse area 520 (an area enclosed by one-dot-chain lines in FIG. 10) which is divided vertically and horizontally into blade fuse cavities 519 to accommodate a number of blade fuses 517, respectively, and a fusible link area 530 (an area enclosed by dashed lines in FIG. 10) which is divided into cartridge fusible link cavities 521 to accommodate the cartridge fusible links 501. There are other cavities on which electrical components are mounted such as relays, electronic units in the power supply box 515, but these cavities are not related to the present invention and the explanations are omitted.
The blade fuses 517 are mounted in the blade fuse cavities 519, respectively, and the cartridge fusible links 501 are mounted in the cartridge fusible link cavities 521, respectively.